Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-10-17

The committee of the New Eng.
land Insurance Exchange are to NEE,
IN Augusta, Tuesday morning, for
the purpose of examining the water
works and reducing the rates of insur-
ance. The Exchange is an organic ation in Bos-
ton, comprising the special agents or field
men of all the insurance companies represent.
ed, and includes about 100 members. The
. object of the organization is to secure i'm
provements in different kinds of fire hazards
and to rate uniformly all property in the
New England states. Before this organize.
ton was formed. the agents fixed their own
rates aud there were great differences in tn e
prices charged for the same hazard in differ
ent localities. Under the new management
which has been in force now shout seven
years, there is committee chosen annually
for each county in New England, and this
committee have entire charge of all rates in
that county, except large, special hazards as
wooden and cotton mills, shoe factories, pap
| er mills, etc., which have a committee eI-
pressly for rating that class of risks and no
agent can determine rate on these risks
until it has been examined by a member of
the committee for the class to which it be.
longs.
The Kennebec county committee consists
of nine members, representing the leading
firms doing business here, with George W.
Eastman, special agent of the N. II. Insur-
| ance Co., as chairman. The committee
were here in Oct. 1888, and made the present
tariff, and it is expected that in the present
revision deduction will be made on all build
in2s occupied for mercantile and manufactur-
ing purposes, but it is doubtful if much
change is made on stocks of merchandise or
dwellings for the reason that the former
are as liable to be destroyed by the great vol
ume of water that will be thrown onto them
in case of fire, as though burned up, and the
latter are now carried as low 10 Augusta as
in any city with first class water works. The
fire department will give good an exhibit
ton of the work as possible, detail of men
under Chief Engineer Morse having charge
of the matter. The water company and the
is completed, which will be in the course of
q few weeks, that no better system for extin
| gushing fires can be found in any city east
of Boston, and with the additions recently
made to the fire department of two hose reels
each carrying five hundred feet of hose, and
| located on Cushnoc Heights and at Pettin-
gil's Corner, and hook and ladder truck
which will probably be run by one Of the CITY
teams, while the other will always respond to
all alarms with the large four wheel hose car
riage carrying fifteen hundred feet of hose.
The steamer Cushnoc is also kept in good
order and always ready for any call which
can't be reached by the water company's SER
vice. But it is believed it will scarcely be
needed, as the hydrsnts are so scattered that
| three hundred feet of hose will cover nearly
all property in the thickly settled part of the
city. The officers of the water company and
of the city will do all in their power to secure
as much reduction of rates of insurance as
possible, aad as the Insurance Exchange
makes all rates in New England, we can feel
assured that the new rat's will correspond
with those on similar risks in other parts of
the country.